It seems lately that everytime a vendor / sponsor posts something they get flamed. I for one get tired of wading through the venom when reading the posts.

These guys are just trying to make a living like the rest of us (actually I'm retired so like the rest of you ).

For the most part guys like Kevin, Dan, Alex, Damon and others offer their experience and advice to us newbies FREE of charge and I for one have gained a better understanding of my car and what's available for it and what to expect. In fact they've saved me big bucks when trying to debug little glitches with my car.

If you don't like their products... don't buy them... but if they stop posting here we all lose a valuable resource.

Jusy my 2 cents.

 

I am with you 110%...The knowledge these guys have and the will to help at any problem occured to my(and everyones) car is awesome...and I am talking about ALL guys...not just Dan or Kevin...Mark has tried almost every setup and he has answered all my questions from time to time...however he does not sell anything so he just wants to help...and I thank him...On the other hand Dan just tells the truth about his products...some have very good gains and some do not.in my opinion,this clarifies a person you can trust...if he wanted he would have hidden the dyno...But he did not and made his car a project...well done...

 

I agree 100%, all those guys who sponsor the forums and offer products (most of the time at great prices too) are the ones that keep the forum moving along, and the ones you turn to when you need advice on your car.

 

I think the problem is IB created a vendor forum strictly for these sorts of posts, however some continue to clutter the main forums. If every vendor acted this way you would quickly be looking at classified ads in every forum top to bottom, rather than actual relevant posts. I'm all for helping forum members and contributing to threads without letting everyone know each time we touch a Porsche part.

 

Well said.

 

I think it's been like that for ages though, just that nobody else has brought out any fresh product in a while...anyway I said this years ago that this place was meant to be a forum where the public and public only should have discussion and the vendors should have had another section, you just don't get this on most forums.

 

WOW, I have just noticed there is a Vendor Marketplace, when did that happen? I have not been looking for ages!

 

Maybe that should have been made as a sticky in all sections, I honestly didn't know that was there until now!

 

Agree 100%!!

I also understand the vendors side of things, and realize they are the reason we are able to have this free forum, and I thank them for that. I support numerous vendors on this forum as well, so their advertising has worked on me. However, now that there is a vendor classified section, I believe vendors should follow the rules and confine their posts to that section. The majority of vendors are doing this, but there are 1 or 2 that still don't get it, which is annoying, but seems to be the norm for them...

 

Even prior to the creation of the vendor marketplace, there was one vendor that clearly abused the posting of 'hey buy this' threads... no other vendor had posted the number of threads this one vendor did on a regular basis.

Clearly this tactic has engendered a negative impression that continues...

Again, all other vendors seem to comply with the new policy....except one. It is really not fair to the other vendors that don't spam the forums.

 

The vendor sales pitches did have a negative effect on me when I first joined the board. The impression I got was... wow, they really push hard on their products; I ain't going to buy anything from them. After awhile, I got used to them and they don't bother me a bit. (still haven't bought anything from them yet)

I see one plus is they are keeping us up to date of what's out there and what's coming.

 

Got back from the track last night and just saw this post. Well written Wes. There is nothing more annoying than opening up the forum to see every other thread in the 997/996 section posted by Vivid with worthless pictures, marketing disguised by 'research' , or plain product whoring. I think IB should require any product post by a vendor to be in the Vendor section. It consolidates the sponsors into once section to allow easier searching and comparative research. I enjoy reading posts written by customers, not sponsors. Responses by sponsors are obviously helpful too, as long as they don't respond with a hyperlink to their website. Unfortunately, Vivid turned the Porsche section into what Gloss-It did to the Detailing section....and it just makes everyone tune out.

 

I have seen many vendors push new products in out 996TT section for years.... I guess if they had rules to follow we would not have these discussions.... but what really raises eye brows is when certain vendors are also moderators with super powers... I think that is a conflict as well.

just my opinion...
mark

 

+1

I was shocked when I saw that when I first came to this forum...total conflict of interest IMO.

 

i have learned to ignore them, but agree with mark.